Picking up tips from a television writer and innovator

Last night I went to a screen writers event. The creator of 'Jane and the Dragon', Martin Baynton talked about how he changed his writing and picture book illustration techniques in order to enter the world of television.
Once he had decided to enter the television world he carried out thorough research in all aspects of production. He attended international film awards and festivals for a couple of years, hounding writers, producers, directors, animators and anyone who had something he thought he wanted to know. He thought very carefully about the work that currently in demand, what was available and where the gaps were. He sat with children of various ages and watched films with them to observe their reactions and find out what they were noticing and engaging with.
As a well published illustrator and story teller he already had a sound background, but he knew that he needed to do his homework as he was taking a huge financial risk (he even mortgaged his house in order to pay for the innovations he wanted to develop).
He was able to draw upon his illustration knowledge in his critique of existing programmes for children and call upon the expertise of Weta Workshops to develop new digital techniques. If you observe any of the footage in the adventures of Jane and the Dragon you will notice that everyone's hair moves in the way real hair does. Watch other animated stories and you will see 'static' hair. The realistic hair movement is one of the innovations Martin was intent upon developing to add a greater authenticity to his work.
You will also notice that the illustrations appear to be hand-rendered in pencil. Another of Martin's desires fulfilled!
Another intriguing part of his explanation about developing a story for animation over a long running series was the development of a 'real' place or setting and 'rea'l characters. In order to create the setting, Martin had to sketch a map, consider where event s would take place, decide what Jane would see as she looked from the castle turrets, decide who lived in the village, what they looked like, what their roles were and characters were like. Working with Weta, illustrations were created to show the whole place in 3D. These became the 'set' for the stories.
From that point on, stories were able to be developed and checked to ensure they could take place within the parameters of the set and characterisations developed.
What a wonderful thing for kids to be able to do - even if they modelled the set in papier mache they would have a far better opportunity to tell their written stories or filmed stories as they would have the 'real' place in front of them.
I think I need to learn how to develop 3D spaces on the computer now!